Everyone needs a hobby

Cow tipping is a pastime allegedly common in rural areas, in which participants sneak up on an upright sleeping cow and then push it over for amusement. Some variants of this urban legend state that the cow is then unable to get up.

One popular variant relies on a supposition that cows lean into a steady wind while asleep in order to keep balance. Based on this, the cow tipper lightly pushes against one side of the cow's torso, and gradually increases the force of push. The cow, while asleep, leans into the push and remains upright. Then when the cow tipper has all of their body weight on the cow, they jump to the side. The cow, still leaning into the ‘wind’, tips over in that direction.

There is no evidence, aside from mostly unreliable eyewitness reports, that any cows have ever been tipped in the purported manner. In particular, nobody has ever produced any video or other reliable photographic evidence showing that it has been done.

(Wikipedia)

a Kempis 11

Let not your peace rest in the utterances of men, for whether they put a good or bad construction on your conduct does not make you other than you are

Where is your true peace and true glory to be found? Is it not in Me?

And he who neither seeks to please men, nor fears to displease them, shall enjoy much peace.

Book 3 ch.29

Play

Through play we participate in this divine creative joy. We share God's delight in the world He has made.

Tim Chester The Busy Christian's Guide to Busyness, 31

Volf on Monotheism & Evil

Consequently, critics say that by positing a cosmic struggle between good and evil, Christianity and other major religions are inescapably violent. Yet the absence of struggle against evil may bring more violence than the struggle itself, and not all struggle is properly described as violent. Critics say that monotheistic religions in particular divide the world into "us" (followers of the one true God) and "them" (followers of false idols). Yet polytheism divides people who worship incompatible gods into "us" and "them" even more fundamentally than does monotheism. Moreover, if we take the question of truth out of the sphere of religion, the only way to adjudicate competing claims of diverse gods is by violent struggle. And atheism did nothing to curtail the ravings of Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot.

...meeting needs

Willimon: Jesus doesn't meet our needs; he rearranges them. He cares very little about most things that I assume are my needs, and he gives me needs that I would've never had if I hadn't met Jesus. He reorders them.

I used to ask seminarians, "Why are you in seminary?" They'd say, "I like meeting people's needs." And I'd say, "Whoa. Really? If you try that with the people I know, they'll eat you alive."

Consumerism

From a Leadership discussion:

Some would say there's nothing wrong with consumerism, that it's morally neutral, simply a reality of options, convenience, and choices. How do you respond to that? What are the spiritual issues at stake?

Will Willimon answers: I love the statement by G.K. Chesterton who said that we could have a really good argument over whether or not Jesus believed in fairies. But we cannot have any debate over whether or not Jesus believed rich people were in big trouble.

Wiersbe again

Ministers must have that eternal perspective, The man who forgets the ultimate is going to be trapped by the immediate, and this can only lead to a busybody kind of superficial service that takes refuge in schedules and statistics. The short-sighted servant forgets God's glory and soon begins to take shortcuts, play politics, and practice manipulation in order to "get results." But that's building with wood, hay, and stubble; and the result is ashes. A pastor friend often reminds me that the harvest is not the end of the meeting it is the end of the age. This is why it is dangerous to be too dogmatic in evaluating ministries today. The only motive that will survive the fiery test of that day is, "I served to the glory of God "

Johnson on ministry

A visitor told Samuel Johnson that he regretted not becoming a clergyman because he considered that life an easy, comfortable existence. Johnson knew better. "The life of a conscientious clergyman is not easy," he told his visitor. "I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family [his church] than he is able to maintain. No, sir! I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life; nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy life."

Wiersbe on ministry

Ministry is too sacred to be motivated by gain and too difficult to be motivated by duty. Only love can sustain us.

Warren Wiersbe

An old car

Concerning ANL Munby:

As a young man, while working for the famous dealer Bernard Quaritch, he had acquired two medeival manuscripts which he then sold to finance a share in a 1925 type 40 Bugatti. It was a fine vehicle, but it was always breaking down, one of its gaskets giving repeated trouble. Munby repaired it with a piece of thick vellum cut from an old book. When people asked him the age of the Bugatti he was thus able to reply, "Parts of it date back to the fifteenth century."

John Mitchell 'Bibliomaniacs', in A Passion for Books.

a Kempis 10

He is not truly patient, who is not willing to suffer except what seems right to himself, and from the person whom he selects.

Book3 ch.19

Aim for this

When I enter the pulpit with the Bible in my hands and in my heart, my blood begins to flow and my eyes to sparkle for the sheer glory of having God's Word to expound. We need to emphasize the glory, the privilege, of sharing God's truth with people.

John Stott.